The holidays are upon us, and many people will be looking for a way to make extra money. Well, we here at Mozy are excited to offer a new way for you to make some cash! All you have to do is send us all your old family photos and home videos, and we’ll pay you $100 cash! I mean, those pictures and videos are OLD, right? Right? OK, so we’re not actually going to do this program, and let’s be honest, the thought of selling your family memories is somewhat preposterous (at least we think so).

We recently ran some surveys in New York City and San Francisco, where we asked people if they would be willing to sell their laptops to us, on the spot. Nearly 98% of the people we surveyed said they would be willing to sell their laptop for an average price of about a thousand dollars, or roughly the cost of the hardware. On the surface, this makes sense. After all, for a thousand dollars, you can buy yourself a brand new laptop. But then you start to think about all the stuff you carry on your laptop. If you’re like most of us, you’ll have pictures, music, videos, and work files on your laptop, and many of those are irreplaceable. All of a sudden, your laptop starts to look a lot more valuable.

We ran another set of surveys in Los Angeles where iJustine asked people if she could buy their laptop – data and all – on the spot. Just check out their responses.

Fairly telling, we think. And it just so happens that when we reminded the people we surveyed in San Francisco and New York that they would lose all of their files with the laptop, a solid 23% of them changed their minds, saying that their laptops were absolutely priceless. The fact that people changed their minds after thinking about the information contained on the laptop points out what Mozy users already know – that you can’t put a price on irreplaceable memories and information. Once digital information is gone – whether you’ve lost it to theft, disaster, or sold to a stranger on the street – you can’t get it back. Back it up.

I too think my laptop is priceless — or it was before I downloaded MozyHome. Now it’s a diminished version of its former glory. I can no longer print; I can’t access my passwords and software registrations because the file they were on will not open; and my iDisk can’t be accessed. All of this happened as soon as I installed MozyHome. It took six emails to get someone to tell me how to uninstall MozyHome, because, of course, the uninstaller doesn’t work. Before I realized all this, I backed up my desktop, which took over four days, during which time I could not use my computer at all, or the backed up data would be lost. I’ve repeatedly asked your staff for assistance with restoring the ability to print and with accessing the software and iDisk that no longer work, but have received NO help. Shame on your flagrant disregard for your customers.

Intermanaut

To be honest, I’d probably let her have my laptop for her ‘phone number and a latte. Then again, Mozy’s my wingman!

Sam

I didn’t like how the question was asked. Since my stuff is backed up I would have no problem selling the laptop, but I’d want to format the drive first. I have no problem losing the local information, I have a big problem with someone else having it.

Back when I worked tech support back in college many students didn’t seem to care if we had to reinstall their OS and they lost everything which amazed me. But I think if I told them I was going to run off with all their personal information it would be a different story.

What do you fear more, coming home and finding your hard drive died or identity theft, not only getting credit cards in your name and possible gaining access to your open accounts, but also being able to learn enough about you to go after friends and family?

QB

I wouldn’t be too concerned about identity theft from info on my laptop. I don’t store credit card numbers on my computer. If I did, I’d just call the CC company and get new numbers. Same with bank accounts. I don’t store passwords. If I did, I’d just change those as well. The most anybody would get would be contacts’ e-mail addresses and maybe some phone numbers. Big whoop! If anything, I’d probably be more embarrassed about having a couple porn videos on my hard drive, which reminds me I better delete that before my wife finds it.

Bob

I’m with Nate on this. Mozy doesn’t provide protection against data theft, so the video (“I get all your files”) is irrelevant.